Photo sites remain offline in wake of possible hack

TORONTO Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O), Sam’s Club (WMT.N) and a handful of different giant retailers have disabled their on-line photo printing shops in current days, on considerations a few possible knowledge breach at PNI Digital Media, which manages and/or hosts photo providers sites.

Customers who have used the online photo services have been advised by PNI Digital Media to keep an eye on their credit card statements for any suspicious activity.

The online photo printing websites of big box retailers such as Costco, Sam’s Club and Walmart Canada have been taken down over fears that their hosting service has become the target of a cyberattack.

We’ll be sure to update you as the investigations carry on and more information comes to light.

Drugstore chain Rite Aid and Britain’s supermarket chain Tesco are also among the retailers that could be possibly affected.

Costco Canada and Rite Aid noted that PNI has limited access to customer information since it does not process credit cards, but the photo service sites were temporarily taken down as a precaution.

It’s not the first time large companies will be affected by a breach at a smaller firm they work with, and it won’t be the last…

All companies are asking that customers take a moment to look over their credit card transactions for any unauthorized charges. The latter is the source of the suspected data breach, which obviously has a knock-on effect to its customers.

The security issue at the third-party service isn’t affecting each retailer’s other websites. It appears that news of a potential breach did not affect the companies’ stocks performance.